New college ref advice

[Andy]

This may or may not be true in your neighborhood, but I found one of the biggest transitions in going from HS to College was interacting with the coaches.

In my experience, college coaches will try much harder to "work" you for a call.
They will also tend to test you more to see what you will take when they realize that you are a new official to the conference or league.

Just be sure to take care of business and good luck.

[Scuba_ref]

Originally Posted by Andy

This may or may not be true in your neighborhood, but I found one of the biggest transitions in going from HS to College was interacting with the coaches.

In my experience, college coaches will try much harder to "work" you for a call.
They will also tend to test you more to see what you will take when they realize that you are a new official to the conference or league.

Just be sure to take care of business and good luck.

I will echo this comment and add that college coaches typically understand the mechanics and rules better than HS coaches and they will call you on it! You have to know your stuff. There is more at stake at the college level...in HS, the coach is also probably employed in some other capacity by the school and so wins and losses won't dictate future employment. In college, coaches are paid to win and so their livelihood is on the line.

BTW congrats!

[Rooster]

Originally Posted by Andy

This may or may not be true in your neighborhood, but I found one of the biggest transitions in going from HS to College was interacting with the coaches.

In my experience, college coaches will try much harder to "work" you for a call.
They will also tend to test you more to see what you will take when they realize that you are a new official to the conference or league.

Just be sure to take care of business and good luck.

Originally Posted by Scuba_ref

There is more at stake at the college level...in HS, the coach is also probably employed in some other capacity by the school and so wins and losses won't dictate future employment. In college, coaches are paid to win and so their livelihood is on the line.

For the reasons stated above I had one guy in my new conference tell me that if a coach calls you a MFer you can START to think about whacking him. I'm pretty good with my people skills but I don't tolerate much BS. Sooo that being stated I'm a little concerned about how much to take from coaches, not wanting to be that guy. Clearly officials in this league don't hand out many, but I'll be doggoned if I'm gonna be a doormat either. For the group: Is there a new balance to be calibrated? Any sharing of the experience with moving back and forth between HS and JUCO in terms of handling coaches sure would be appreciated.

[JetMetFan]

Originally Posted by Rooster

For the reasons stated above I had one guy in my new conference tell me that if a coach calls you a MFer you can START to think about whacking him. I'm pretty good with my people skills but I don't tolerate much BS. Sooo that being stated I'm a little concerned about how much to take from coaches, not wanting to be that guy. Clearly officials in this league don't hand out many, but I'll be doggoned if I'm gonna be a doormat either. For the group: Is there a new balance to be calibrated? Any sharing of the experience with moving back and forth between HS and JUCO in terms of handling coaches sure would be appreciated.

There shouldn't be any new balance to calibrate. The one common thread among college coaches, be they JUCO or otherwise, is they work for and represent the school. College administrators generally don't like their representatives acting up in public so if a HC calls you a "M-F" and you ring him/her up you're just doing your job. I don't know of any college coordinator who wouldn't back you in that situation.

In HS, there's always a chance the HC doesn't work for the school so he/she may not care or may not be as easily affected by the school's administration.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by JetMetFan

In HS, there's always a chance the HC doesn't work for the school so he/she may not care or may not be as easily affected by the school's administration.

While it's true that the coach may not be a teacher, he's still under the authority of the athletic director, the principal, the superintendent, and the board of education.

[johnny d]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

While it's true that the coach may not be a teacher, he's still under the authority of the athletic director, the principal, the superintendent, and the board of education.

Yes, but if he doesn't work for the school, losing his coaching job isn't that big of a deal, it isn't how he makes his living.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by johnny d

Yes, but if he doesn't work for the school, losing his coaching job isn't that big of a deal, it isn't how he makes his living.

Keep in mind that my comments only referred to high school basketball, not college (I was replying to JetMetFan's high school post) .

Originally Posted by JetMetFan

In HS, there's always a chance the HC doesn't work for the school so he/she may not care or may not be as easily affected by the school's administration.

Although I'm sure that it's possible, I've never heard of a high school teacher/coach in Connecticut losing is teaching job as well as his coaching job because of some on court improprieties with officials.

[Rooster]

Originally Posted by JetMetFan

There shouldn't be any new balance to calibrate. The one common thread among college coaches, be they JUCO or otherwise, is they work for and represent the school. College administrators generally don't like their representatives acting up in public so if a HC calls you a "M-F" and you ring him/her up you're just doing your job. I don't know of any college coordinator who wouldn't back you in that situation.

In HS, there's always a chance the HC doesn't work for the school so he/she may not care or may not be as easily affected by the school's administration.

I got some clarification from a big dawg in the conference and he pish-shawed the M-F stuff, saying what I was told earlier is ridiculous. He basically said that if a coach comes after ME personally, that's an easy one... Good to know that I don't have to put up with a different standard of BS at the Juco level.

[Sharpshooternes]

Originally Posted by Andy

This may or may not be true in your neighborhood, but I found one of the biggest transitions in going from HS to College was interacting with the coaches.

In my experience, college coaches will try much harder to "work" you for a call.
They will also tend to test you more to see what you will take when they realize that you are a new official to the conference or league.

Just be sure to take care of business and good luck.

They are picking the wrong new guy to try that with. I tossed a coach during my try out for this college conference a few weeks ago. I am not afraid to take ace of business. I feel like the college environment is much more accepting of techs than HS. College=tool to take care of business. HS=very very last resort